Two more arrests in document leak case

New Delhi, February 26: Two officials of the environment ministry and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) were arrested in connection with the official documents leak case, police said on Thursday. Delhi Police have arrested Jatinder gpal, who is persol assistant to the joint secretary in the ministry. He was arrested Wednesday night along with Vipan Kumar, who is persol assistant to a member of the UPSC. Police said both the accused were detained Tuesday for questioning in connection with the petroleum and other ministries’ document leakage case, which was unearthed February 17 night, with the arrest of two former multi-tasking staff (MTS) employees of Shastri Bhawan.

Police added that Kumar, who was earlier working with the petroleum and tural gas ministry, used to get important/secret documents from his contacts in the ministry, which he had joined as a stenographer in 1996.  Between 1996-2010, Kumar used to steal documents from the ministry with the help from his contacts and passed them on to corporate houses, police said.

gpal has also joined service as a stenographer in 1994 at the ministry of law and justice, where he served until 2007. Between 2001-2003, he worked at the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and used to procure documents from Vipan Kumar, Lokesh Sharma (already arrested earlier) and his other contacts, they added. “Both (gpal and Kumar) disclosed that they have been part of this illegal activity since many years. They shared a common email address which was being used to forward documents to some of their clients,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav. Yadav said that both were produced in Dwarka Court and have been sent to five days’ police custody.

Informed sources said that gpal, a resident of west Delhi’s Hari gar area, was detained two days ago as his me was revealed during the interrogation of Sharma, an employee of a Noida-based energy consultancy Infraline Energy.

Kumar’s me also cropped up during Sharma’s interrogation. Sharma, in his 30s, was formerly with the MTS at Shastri Bhawan. A resident of Vijay gar in west Delhi’s Uttam gar area, he was arrested from Dwarka February 22. He is currently in judicial custody. During the interrogation of all the accused, police said that they had got links about some more corporate sectors who were the beneficiaries of these stolen documents.

However, they said the documents were stolen from petroleum, coal and power ministries, and nothing was stolen from the defence and environment ministries. “In our investigation, we don’t have any link about the stealing of documents from the defence and environment ministries...but we got some information that there are some more corporate houses who benefit from these stolen documents,” said Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi. Bassi added: “Till now they don’t have any links with any senior ministry official.” Sources added that both used to provide documents to Sharma and Prayas Jain, an employee of Melbourne-based Metis Energy Consulting and Research Services. Jain is in judicial custody till March 6. Sources said adding that police would seek custody of both for questioning.

So far, 16 people, including gpal and Kumar, have been arrested and Delhi Police have registered two FIRs in connection with the leak of classified documents related to various ministries, including coal, petroleum and tural gas, and power. gpal and Kumar’s mes are mentioned in the second FIR which was registered on February 20. (IANS)

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